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Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#21

Post by vmception »

tempestn wrote: post #17
vmception wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good riddance. If people want to learn those arts they can always go to the monetary with their sensei.

If we're honest, most of the actual content of the first 5-7 years or so of schooling is unimportant and ultimately forgotten, save for reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. Ideally some basic computer use too. But it's not like every moment spent on cursive writing in primary school would be a moment taken away from some critical, core subject. Aside from those few key building blocks, most of what you're doing in…

I dont want to optimize a curriculum, I dont want them to bother with that. Glad to read other decision makers reached the same conclusion.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#22

Post by DocTomoe »

happytoexplain wrote: post #11
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the right hands and with the right practice, cursive is beautiful and a work of art.

Yes, skilled penmanship and calligraphy is wonderful. But in my personal life, the majority of times I encounter cursive, I can not even read the handwriting, which is, to put it lightly, bad.

I find it interesting that I only ever hear that kind of complaint from Americans. Here in Europe, cursive/script is the basic way you learn writing, you automatically transition to something other later in life ... and we have zero hate for either variant.

As for lack of legibility: I would guess US teachers not enforcing good style in preschool and elementary school contribute to that.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#23

Post by sshine »

technothrasher wrote: post #9

I wrote a message in a bottle when I was young. I still have very dim memories of being excited at the possibility that somebody in another country years later would find it. According to my folks, however, there were some issues. First, I was four years old and couldn't write, and second, I threw the bottle into a small pond. But my parents didn't want to dampen my enthusiasm at the time.

What, ponds don’t have edges?

An interpretation: Being told the details as a grown-up, you’re the finder of that bottle. Probably not many would appreciate the drawing you did as much as you can appreciate being enriched with the memory of yourself as a kid.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#24

Post by agumonkey »

technothrasher wrote: post #9

I wrote a message in a bottle when I was young. I still have very dim memories of being excited at the possibility that somebody in another country years later would find it. According to my folks, however, there were some issues. First, I was four years old and couldn't write, and second, I threw the bottle into a small pond. But my parents didn't want to dampen my enthusiasm at the time.

heh, beside the joke, I remember being utterly excited just seeing people talk over long distance ham radio by using atmospheric reflections.. someone in california randomly bumping into a russia far of Siberia after minutes of white noise.. super eerie.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#25

Post by scoot »

carbocation wrote: post #4
iso1631 wrote: post #2

Look how neat that handwriting is. None of that nonsense scrawl they introduce in KS2 now (I believe Americans call it cursive)

It looks like D'Nealian[1], which is designed as an introduction to handwriting that facilitates learning cursive. 1 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian

I have to agree - my first thought was that the writing looked "pre-cursive". As a late teen I abandoned cursive in favor of something that I could read.

These days about the only thing I write by hand is my signature. It's a squiggle.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#26

Post by tempestn »

vmception wrote: post #21
tempestn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're honest, most of the actual content of the first 5-7 years or so of schooling is unimportant and ultimately forgotten, save for reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. Ideally some basic computer use too. But it's not like every moment spent on cursive writing in primary school would be a moment taken away from some critical, core subject. Aside from those few key building blocks, most of what you're doing in…

I dont want to optimize a curriculum, I dont want them to bother with that. Glad to read other decision makers reached the same conclusion.

Personally I'm glad I learned cursive in school, even though I'm terrible at it. Far more valuable than learning about the various species of local turtle, or 1000 other things we did in primary school that I've since forgotten.

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#27

Post by dmix »

DocTomoe wrote: post #22
happytoexplain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, skilled penmanship and calligraphy is wonderful. But in my personal life, the majority of times I encounter cursive, I can not even read the handwriting, which is, to put it lightly, bad.

I find it interesting that I only ever hear that kind of complaint from Americans. Here in Europe, cursive/script is the basic way you learn writing, you automatically transition to something other later in life ... and we have zero hate for either variant. As for lack of legibility: I would guess US teachers not enforcing good style in preschool and elementary school contribute to that.

I can't remember the last time I wrote anything long form without a keyboard. Is that still a thing enough people do to have strong opinions about this?

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#28

Post by colechristensen »

iso1210 wrote: post #15
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the right hands and with the right practice, cursive is beautiful and a work of art.

And the rest of the time it's illegible scrawl and has no place in basic education. Even [0], the US declaration of independence, is horrendous to read compared to this 8 year old girl's handwriting. https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-declaration-of-independenc... ?

It is, in essence, a different dialect of writing. It is not illegible, you just don’t know how to read it. Deposit yourself in Edinburgh, Appalachia, or rural Minnesota and you’ll have various levels of difficulty understanding how people speak, is their speech wrong or is your knowledge of their language lacking?

Re: Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years

#30

Post by gavinray »

iso1631 wrote: post #6
OJFord wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has it really changed? Or do we just not keep up with it outside of/after leaving school any more? I'm a bit younger than her and was certainly taught properly (in KS1, not 2, if my quick search is correct that KS2 starts at form/year/grade 3) - I just quite quickly stopped using it and now my writing is an only-half-joined-up 'nonsense scrawl'.

My kids are in year 2 and 5. Year 5 had perfectly legible handwriting (not quite as good as the stuff in the image, but pretty good) until they forced the joined up shit starting in year 3. Looking at other words on the wall confirms this is normal - writing goes back severely in KS2 because of this 1960s view that you have to be able to write large amounts of prose at speed.

I was born in 1997, I recall a faint effort being made to teach us cursive in about 5th grade, but neither myself nor anyone my age I know can write it.

I can only write print. I don't see the use for cursive, and I said as much when I was 10 (I already had a personal computer, if I was going to write something long it'd be faster for me to type it).

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